Always and Never
by Jiwwy
Summary: Alternate Universe where Katia lived and Gaia continued living a fairly normal life, as her life goes. Then the spring when she's fourteen they stay in New York...
1. Default Chapter

GASP! A reader!   
  
*Author runs up and sits you down in a chair, tying you up and dancing around you happily* I got a reader, lalalalalala! Now you have to listen to my ramblings! *giggles excitedly*  
  
... Yeah, anyway. This is my first Fearless fic. It's alternate reality, where Oliver didn't fall in love with Katia.  
  
... So he didn't kill Katia....  
  
... So Gaia's... normal.  
  
***  
  
"Gaia, baby, time for breakfast!" Katia Moore called up the stairs in a singsong voice; her dark, shiny hair pulled up in a French braid. She tapped her fingers on the banister. "Gaia?"  
  
Katia's husband, Tom, shuffled up to her holding a mug of coffee. He stared up for a few seconds. "She'll be down. She always is." And without another thought he shuffled over to the breakfast table. Neither Gaia nor Tom was a big fan of mornings. They just didn't understand why it had to come so early.  
  
Katia sighed and mumbled something in Russian Tom couldn't make out. She returned to the stove. "Gaia Moore, if you don't come down this minute you don't get a doughnut."  
  
Upstairs a young blonde jerked out of her bed, eyes wide. "I'm coming!" she sang, mimicking Katia's voice. She muttered something in Russian too as she flicked the eye boogers away from her eyes. "Hiya, guys," she said softly to her pet rats, Zeus and Hera. She stared at Zeus' growing belly for a second. Either he was hogging all the food or Gaia had switched their names around at some point in time.  
  
She scratched her head and put on jeans and a tank top, combing through her pale, tangled locks and getting nowhere as Katia started to yell again.   
  
"I'm coming." Gaia hollered as she descended the stairs. "Oy vay, Mother."  
  
Katia sighed as she served Gaia a sausage patty and some pancakes. "I honestly don't know how I stand you two."  
  
Gaia stared at the plate stupidly and gazed at her mom with a puppy-dog face.  
  
"Oh." Katia laughed quietly as she handed Gaia a doughnut. The fourteen-year-old's face lit up and she inhaled the doughnut in record time. "Mo' peez?" She asked, licking her fingers of the sweet sugary coating.  
  
"I swear that isn't a girl. That's a Hoover," Tom said as he slurped his coffee.  
  
"But a Hoover who's fluent in five and a half languages. And an expert in more martial arts than most people know about," Gaia started as she wolfed down her sausage.  
  
"That reminds me, I wanted to start you in on sumo today," Tom mumbled offhandedly, but the glint in his blue eyes told her he was joking.  
  
"Ha. Ha. Also, ha." Gaia said monotonously.  
  
"She'll be big enough if she keeps eating like this."  
  
"She's a growing girl, Katia... there's also the fact that she burns about 4400 calories a day beating me up."  
  
Gaia grinned. She'd never actually beaten him up, but if he had been an enemy... let's just say he wouldn't be sitting quite so comfortably. "I wanted to go to the park today. They say there's a man there that beats everyone at chess."  
  
Tom's eyes lit up with interest but he looked at his watch. "Well, that's fine with me as long as you're home by dinner, I've got a meeting today anyway."  
  
Katia nodded. "And don't you be filling up on doughnuts, young lady." She warned. Gaia grinned and gobbled her last pancake.   
  
"I won't. See ya." Gaia ran outside before Katia eventually dragged her down to being back home in five minutes. She breathed deep. Spring in New York City. Not her favorite place, but she still loved it here. The mix of all the cultures all coming together was exciting for her. Of course, lots of things were exciting to Gaia.   
  
She strode the two blocks to Washington Square West, her long gait allowing the trip in a very short time. As she walked through the miniature Arc de Triomph, she glanced around the park seemingly nonchalantly and froze when she saw him.  
  
He was tall and lean, but muscular. Gaia saw him in the park most days she came. He was a skater with dark hair and a goofy smile. She watched him a lot. He was really popular. Sometimes, pretty girls would come by and flirt with him.  
  
His name was Ed.  
  
Oooo. I'm good, aren't I?... *tightens rope* *smiles sweetly* Thanks! Now review... *cough* If you'd LIKE to. ^_^  
  
...Naw seriously, I was thinking about what might've happened if Katia had lived last night, and the idea of Open-sweeter-I-have-a-mom-Gaia having a crush on pre-accident-pre-Heather-skate-rat-Eddy (Remember Heather's a year older than Gaia, so this is the spring before Ed and Heather's little love fest on the beach. ^_^) sounded like a good story... If you like it, let me know, puh-leeze...   



	2. Chessmistress Ahoy

Gaia waited about fifteen minutes watching Ed, until he and his friends moved out, maybe to watch movies or skate another park. The girl cleared her throat and sat up, a dignified look on her face as she realized she'd sunk into a little pile on the cement next to the Arc, a mass of tangled banana-colored hair and worn in jacket. She tried to stand, but immediately fell backward, cursing legs and their tendency to fall asleep.

"Hey, you okay?" 

Gaia stared as a guy stooped down and offered her his hand. "Hey, alive down there?" She looked up, blinking rapidly, and saw a mess of ginger locks and a pair of brown eyes. The kid looked about sixteen or seventeen. She looked back at his hand and gave him hers. It was a strange occurrence for a New Yorker to notice a little girl falling over herself, let alone help her.

"You aren't from around here, are you?"

He stared back. "No, but I will be. I'm thinking of going to NYU." 

She shoved her hands in her pockets. "I dunno, the people there are kinda stuck up."

He smiled slowly, and looked around. His eyes caught on the chess tables.

"Do you play?" Gaia asked. 

"Yeah, I love it. Up for a game?"

"Sure." She owed him something for helping her up. Taking twenty bucks from him ought to be enough.

***

Fifteen-year-old Heather Gannis tossed her hair as she led the girls to the best new coffee shop in town. They were all giggly that she was treating them. All of them said how much they loved a good latte, but Heather would bet not half of them had ever drank one. This was besides the point, though, as Heather wasn't up for coffee as much as guy-watching. And she knew just the right guy.

"Heath, what are you having?"

"What? Oh, I dunno, what do _you_ want, Meg?"

Megan's eyes grew slightly wider, and Heather laughed to herself. Megan was one of the ones who wasn't much for coffee. Heather slid into the booth first, cramming herself by the window that had a great view of the park. She finally got over her friends' lack of coffee I.Q. and ordered for herself and the rest of them, her eyes only barely coming off the flying bodies next to the stairs and off the fountains, waiting for that tell-tale stance, that lopsided grin, those wide shoulders… there. 

Ed Fargo.

"Hell-_o!_ Earth to Heather Gannis?"

The girls giggled at Brooke's remarks. Brooke looked proud of herself. "Ha," Heather retorted halfheartedly. Meghan followed her gaze. 

"Omigawd, Heather, those are, like, _skate rats_." Megan giggled.

"Yeah." Heather replied, still staring at him.

***

Gaia and the guy sat, staring across the board at each other. It was his turn. She dared him to make his move.

Sam Moon was stunned. If all the junior high schoolers in New York were this good at chess, he might as well just go back to Massachusetts. He moved tediously, and nearly cringed as she quickly tapped her piece over his. "Check."

He stared up at her in shock, she grinned. She looked so little, bundled in her huge navy jacket.

"How old are you, anyway?" He said as he got his plan together and moved his bishop in her way.

"Um, fourteen."

"No you aren't."

"Yes I am."

"You can't be this good and only fourteen."

She blushed a little and took her turn. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen." 

She crunched up her face, making her look even younger. "You aren't so much older than me."

"You live around here, don't you?" He might be able to get her mind off the game if he kept up the conversation.

"Sometimes."

"What do you mean?"

She studied the board carefully. "My dad moves around a lot. So we have lots of houses. Check."

"So he works in the army?"

"He works for the government."

"My dad's a pediatrician!" He said helpfully, wanting to know exactly what working 'for the government' entailed, but from all the movies he'd seen, he knew the when someone works 'for the government' that's all they'd like to say about that.

"That's checkmate," she announced. "I gotta go."

And she left.

***

End Chapter Two! I don't know what the accomplished, but it should hold you off until there's a reasonable excuse for a plot, shouldn't it?


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